Cerner 15K

I represented Jason (his workplace...anyway!) by competing in the first annunal Cerner SlimDown Challenge 15K race at the new LIVESTRONG Sporting Park Soccer Complex at the Legends in Kansas City. It was an amazing flat course that ended in the stadium...loved having my groupies waiting for me at the end. :)

1:04-8th place woman (1st in age group-6:56 pace)

Circus

RINGLING BROS AND BARNUM AND BAILY CIRCUS-Birthday Bash-Sprint Center

On a whim, Marie and I loaded up 6 kids and headed to the circus late Saturday morning. We are sooooo brave!

This speaks volumes!

Baby Tate crashed!

Blog Purge!

....wait for it. It's coming...probably all within the next hour. We haven't fallen off the face of the earth...rather LIFE has kept this family of five BUSY for the last month. We enjoyed the Barnum and Bailey Circus with friends, celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Jonathan's Elementary school where I spent a day helping over 150 kids tye-dye t-shirts for the big week-long celebration, we've started soccer, continued dance, begun Boy Scouts, taken a short break from fencing, been participating in the Manor Hill Running Club to prepare for the KC Kid's Marathon, and just last weekend, enjoyed movie night watching Rio in the Elementary School gym, went to the Apple Orchard and the KC Pumpkin Patch. I truely love this time of year!

YES!

Adding more pictures from Sunday!

LOVE this one!

The North Face Endurance Challenge

....a challenge indeed. Although one of the most scenic races throughout Kansas City, it was HILLY...but I did manage finished in 3rd place right in front of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (even if wasn't a stellar time). It was a GORGEOUS day for a race. I used this raced as a training run for NYC and I'm feeling it today...just about everywhere. I did still go to yoga and it hurt so good! And OH..............this girl is touching her toes! Yes. My nasty toes. I can touch them. A small victory to some, but HUGE for me. It only took 12 weeks of yoga to get there!

Anyway....the kids competed in the Dean Karnazes kids race. If you don't know who this guy is, just google him! He has some amazing and quirky running accolades....like running 50 marathons, in 50 states in 50 consecutive days. Oh, but he didn't stop there...he ran his last of the 50 marathons in NYC then ran all the way back to St. Louis (1300 additional miles). CRAZY...but inspiring! He is all about healthy living and his initiative of "No Child Left Inside"...a movement to get kids OUTSIDE and active. The kids ran the 1K and all of them ran the entire way. Jason and I were very proud parents and the kids were elated to finish and get their very own medal.

Back to School!

I'm a week late posting (with all the chaos of the new school year and daddy out of the country for work), but Jonathan started school, too! He LOVES 1st grade...and thinks his teacher is pretty cute! He also had his first U7 soccer game and scored 3 points....more importantly, he had a BLAST.

Preschool!

Sooooooo excited to start up school again!

Not so excited when they realized mom was leaving them. Guess 12 weeks off makes one forget how it all goes down during the school year.

Sneaky Sleepers

Although at different times of the night/morning, they all end up in our bed. Can't help but smile in the morning!

Ladies Night Out

Amy, Melanie, Lisa, Ashley, Marie & Emily

I have AMAZING friends...especially my running partners. I think about this often actually, but I do realize... you know... my weekly running partners likely know more about me and my life than many of my best friends do. They see me every morning at the godawful time of 5am (sometimes earlier)...usually 5 days a week. I tell them everything! From doctors appointments, family/work frustrations & celebrations, and crazy Saturday night shenanigans. I'm sure I bore them with uninteresting blabbering but I spend about 2 miles trying to tell my senseless stories anyway (how annoying is that?). And they put up with it and have yet to tell me to shut up. :) I am appreciative that I have them in my life...I'd otherwise I'd sleep in every single morning and be fat and insane.

Anyway....I say all that to say that we traded in our running shoes recently for a night on the town!